The One in the Dress
by TheQuietAwakening
Summary: Without memory of what happened to him, Harry is injured and being treated at St. Mungo's, struggling to remember. Can he figure it out in time to save wizarding Britain once again? - Written for QLFC Round 11


**Author's note:**

 **Hey guys! Thanks for checking out another one-shot! I hope you enjoy!**

 **Theme: Who's afraid of the Dark?**

 **Position: Chaser 1 – prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer**

 **Team: Wimbourne Wasps**

 **Optional prompts: (object) a torn dress, (location) St. Mungo's, (object) compass**

* * *

Harry ran. He wasn't quite sure from what, but he had to get away. His heart thudded wildly in his chest, lungs burning and muscles aching with fatigue as he desperately sprinted away from his pursuer.

He was in a forest, the trees seeming to grow thicker on either side of him. It was cold, and his fast breath came in puffs of white in front of his face.

What was chasing him? Why was he so terrified?

Then he saw her.

Coming to a screeching halt, he stared. He couldn't see her face, but something about her sent a wave of grief tearing through his heart.

The dress, he recognized it, though he couldn't quite place from where. It was torn up the side, swishing violently around her legs in the growing wind.

He was stuck, mesmerised, trapped in the woman's gaze which was somehow invisible to him. As he stared at the enchanting face that he could not see, she lunged toward him, faster than his eyes could follow.

Pain.

White hot pain.

* * *

Harry bolted upright in the bed, panting. Who knew the walls of St. Mungo's could be so comforting? That forest haunted him, and he didn't know why. It seemed he couldn't remember much right now. He didn't know what happened to him three days ago to bring him to the hospital. He kept having these dreams, though they seemed too strange and disjointed to be of any help. Maybe he'd simply fallen? The healers said he had a nasty head injury.

He lifted a hand to gently trace the scar on his chest. They had done a good job fixing him up, though it still ached something fierce. A fall didn't explain that.

Why hadn't his friends come to see him? They must know what happened, but he was alone.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," Healer Williams cheerfully greeted, Harry's charts gripped under one arm. "How are you feeling?"

She was always so smiley, and while it was nice to see a happy face every morning, it seemed overly forced, as though she were hiding something.

"Better," he replied curtly.

"Did you have another nightmare?" She asked.

"Yes, but it's not like I've never had nightmares before," he told her.

Coming to stand beside him, she checked to see how his wounds were healing.

"Mr. Potter, you need your rest. I can give you something –"

"I told you, I don't want it. You've done a great job, but I just want to figure out what happened. I need to find my friends, they might know something."

The healer looked at him. "You can't leave until you're healed, and you can't heal until you're rested."

Harry sighed. "Fine," he gave in, sending a fake smile back at her. "You win. Tonight, I'll take the potion."

"Good," she gave his arm a little pat. "I'll be back to check on you in a few hours." With that, she turned to leave, dragging the curtain closed behind her.

The waiting was agony. He was alone, nothing to do but sit, and think.

What was he working on before this happened?

Harry had been trying to figure this out since he woke here three days before. What had he been doing? After the war, there had been fluctuating periods of crime that the auror department had had to deal with, but nothing nearly as big as what he had faced with Voldemort. There had been no knew leaders as some people had predicted, no new groups had come up, at least not yet. So, what happened to put him in the hospital, and where were his friends?

Where were Ron and Hermione? They'd been there through so much, why would they leave him alone now?

Ginny should be there at least. They were dating for long enough and even discussing marriage. Surely, she should be there.

Ginny.

Thinking of her made him sad. Was she reconsidering their future? Had something happened between them that he couldn't remember?

An image of the torn dress flashed through his mind and his heart clenched. It happened every once in a while; the dress, that terrible, agonizing dress would suddenly appear in his thoughts. Why did it make him feel this way? Why was he remembering it at all? It was only from his nightmare. The woman in the dress that caused him so much pain in his dream. Its floral pattern swirling around her body was permanently ingrained in his mind.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Tonight, he would get a good night's sleep, he would heal fully and be able to start investigating.

 _Blood. A body. Death._

Harry's eyes snapped open. Was he daydreaming now?

It was the woman. The torn, floral dress swished aside to reveal a man lying on the ground, skin as pale as he had ever seen, and two punctures marked his throat.

Suddenly, Harry was quite aware of eerie silence surrounding him.

It couldn't be real, could it? It was a dream, not a memory. Gooseflesh raised on Harry's skin as he considered the possibility that his nightmare was reality.

The woman seemed familiar, too familiar. Who was she?

No. Harry pressed a hand to his head that had begun to ache. He was being silly. He had hit his head and now his mind was playing tricks.

But the more he thought, the more he worried. His friends weren't there with him. Maybe, he wasn't being abandoned. Perhaps something had happened to them too.

He had to get out of there! He had to help his friends! He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and was about to make a run for it when a shriek down the hall made him freeze.

Something was happening.

 _Her eyes. They seemed to stare through him, into his very soul. They were red, like fire, and they burned._

Punctured throat, pale skin, red eyes. He didn't know who the woman was, but he knew what.

Vampire.

The shriek was a switch that set his memories into action. That was the case. He was wrong, there was another group that raised to power after Voldemort, but they weren't wizards.

Vampires.

There was an uprising.

Zagan.

They were unseen, murderers of the night. No one predicted this could happen. The vampires weren't considered evil, they didn't even fight alongside Voldemort in the war.

They were here, at St. Mungo's.

Harry grabbed his wand from beside the bed, pulled the curtain aside and ran.

People were gathering at the end of the hall, someone was crying, someone was shouting for the crowd to back up. Harry pushed his way through.

Healer Williams was staring at him from the ground, eyes blank, skin pale, and two red puncture marks marred her neck.

"It's still here!" someone cried from behind him.

"Did anyone see where it went?" He tried to ask above the terrified voices.

A woman beside him lifted a shaking hand to point further down the corridor, and he followed, wand raised, muscles tensed and ready for action. He took a deep, steadying breath, preparing himself for whatever might happen. He stopped when he saw a shadow from around the corner. The spell was on his lips as he moved around the bend, and he came face to face with Hermione.

"Harry! Thank Merlin you're alright!" She pulled him into a hug.

"What's going on?"

"I'll explain everything," she said stepping back. "First we have to catch the one here."

"You mean the vampire, right?" Harry clarified.

Hermione looked at him. "How much do you remember?"

"They were everywhere, people were panicking, but St. Mungo's was a safe zone, wasn't it?"

"Was. Yes, until now. Do you remember my research on Zagan?" Hermione asked, grabbing his hand to follow her down the hall.

"Somewhat. He's the leader."

"Zagan's their leader yes, but I believe he took that name because, from my reading, Zagan was a fallen angel who became king of Hell, leading an army of demons. He's made them demons, Harry. He's controlling them," she explained quickly.

"So, they're not evil."

"No, he's making them that way." Hermione continued. "It's all very complicated, and I'm sorry we couldn't get here earlier to explain. You'll understand soon."

She froze outside the healer's room.

"It's in there," she whispered. "On three."

Harry, nodded, silently counting.

 _One, two._

They burst into the room.

" _Stupify!"_ Hermione shot the spell in the direction of the man who had another healer pinned to the wall.

The man dropped to the floor.

"Where's Ron?" Harry asked.

"With Ginny," she replied, grabbing a small sphere from her bag and carefully placing it in the stunned vampire's palm. "Portkey," she stated as it disappeared. "We're sending them to a secure location run by the ministry, to keep them from hurting anyone else until we get to the source."

"The source?"

"Yes," Hermione reached into her coat pocket and pulled out an old, rusted compass. "I've charmed it, so instead of pointing north, it points to the main power source Zagan is drawing from to control his army. The Stone of Diabolos. It's mythical of course, but there has been some evidence it could be real, and I believe it's one the only things that, if its power was harnessed, could produce the effects we're seeing. The compass is going to take us there." She glanced down at the rusted metal object. "We're close. Let's go."

"Brilliant, Hermione," Harry said. He was continually amazed by her cleverness.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips at the compliment. "Come on."

"Hermione!" They heard Ron's voice as they stepped out into the hall again.

"Ron! What are you doing! Where's Ginny?" Hermione demanded.

"I lost her!"

"What?! How could you lose her!" Hermione yelled.

"I don't know! It just happened!"

"What's going on?" Harry asked. "And what's this about losing Ginny? I don't understand." Something happened. Something happened to Ginny! "Where is she?"

Ron and Hermione just looked at each other.

"Let's just go," Hermione said quietly, not looking at Harry.

"Tell me!" Harry demanded.

"She'll be okay. As long as we finish this, she'll … she'll be fine," Hermione sounded unsure. Hermione was rarely unsure and Harry didn't like it. "The compass led us here."

"To St. Mungo's? The safe zone?"

"Think about it. Why was it a safe zone?" Hermione asked. Harry didn't have an answer. "I think it's because the stone has been here all along. It's controlling the vampires out there, but I think it might be some sort of protection of itself that it doesn't allow them to get too close."

"Then why was a vampire just here?"

"Because _we're_ here. And we're here to destroy it," she reasoned, leading them to the lift. "It let them in to stop us."

Stepping inside, Hermione raised her wand, " _Revilio."_ A knob appeared on the back wall. "There it is," she murmured, reaching out and pulling it.

Immediately, the lift dropped, falling fast.

"Hermione! What did you do!" Ron shrieked

Just as suddenly as the lift fell, it stopped.

"You were saying?" Hermione shot back.

"It was bloody terrifying!" Ron defended.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Come on."

The lift doors opened to a large, domed cavern.

Stepping out, Hermione looked at the compass again.

"This way," she whispered, marching on ahead of them.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ron worried.

They walked, their footsteps echoing off the stone walls. Heart racing, wand aimed ahead, Harry followed behind Hermione. He just wanted all this to be over. He wanted to find Ginny. Hermione wasn't telling him something, but she said it would be alright if they finished this.

That's when he saw her, the woman from his dream. She stood, blocking their path, her torn dress hanging limply at her hips.

Harry's breath caught, his heart dropping to his stomach.

Ginny.

"You don't want to do this." Hermione's voice seemed far away.

Harry was trapped in her gaze, her burning red gaze.

"Oh, I think I do." Ginny spoke in a strange, slow voice.

"Remember what happened in the forest?" Hermione prompted. "You're being controlled, but you can fight it. You did it when you hurt Harry. You helped us. You can fight it now."

Ginny did this to him? No, not Ginny, Zagan.

"Come on, Gin," Ron sounded close to tears.

"The army of Zagan will rise," Ginny said.

Mechanically, Harry stepped forward. "It's me. You can fight it." Ginny snarled at his comforting, encouraging words. "I believe in you."

For a moment, he saw a flash of his Ginny return.

He turned to his friends. "Go, destroy the stone. I'll hold her off."

"We're not going to leave you," Hermione insisted. "Not again."

"Please," he said. "This is your chance."

"Alright," Hermione agreed after a few seconds. "Just, be careful."

He nodded.

This time, he lunged at her, the woman in the floral dress who was trapping his Ginny deep inside. As his friends ran on ahead, he got behind her, careful to avoid the fangs protruding from her mouth, and hugged her tightly. As she struggled to escape, to turn her head and bite him, Harry ignored the stabbing pain from the still healing wound in his chest and whispered in Ginny's ear.

"It's going to be alright. This isn't you, it's not who you are. I love you, Gin. I always will. No matter what."

It seemed to take forever before something happened. Harry wasn't sure what he expected, but Hermione said Ginny would be okay, and she was usually right. His muscles burned from holding on so tightly, but he didn't let go. He couldn't.

Suddenly, she stopped fighting. Ginny went limp in his arms and he felt her shoulders shake as she started to sob. Slowly, he released his grip, allowing her to turn to face him.

"I'm so sorry," she cried.

"It's okay," he whispered, "It'll be okay."

* * *

 **A huge thanks to DaughteroftheOneTrueKing for beta'ing!**


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